Former Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Bihar, Jai Narain Prasad Nishad, has been disqualified from the Rajya Sabha under the Anti-Defection Act.

The decision was taken on Wednesday by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari, who held that Nishad had become subject to disqualification by 'voluntarily giving up his membership of the BJP, his original political party'.

Nishad had campaigned for the Rashtriya Janata Dal in the assembly elections in Bihar in 2005 despite being a member of the BJP, which had prompted party member Sushma Swaraj to file a disqualification petition against him in December that year.

Ansari disagreed with Nishad's contention that he had tendered his resignation from the primary membership of the party on 18 October, 2005 'in an agitated mental condition', which he later withdrew by his letter dated 17 November, 2005.